Last week we visited Guruvayooor
in Kerala. This is one of the holiest
places for Lord Krishna. I have no idea
which hotel to book for staying. I
surfed the web and booked a hotel through Kerala.com Travel Division. I have no idea if they are affiliated with
Kerala Government or a private travel consultant. Anyhow I booked in a hotel in Guruvayoor.
We had a good darshan of Lord
Guruvayoorappan.
It is time to check out. The time was 7 PM. It was pouring cats and dogs. We have to catch the train at Thrissur, which
is about a 35 minute drive from Guruvayoor.
We go to the reception desk and I
give my Visa credit card. He took my
card and looked at it for almost 2 minutes.
(To us, it looked like 2 hours.)
Then he asked me if I can pay in cash.
I told him I don’t have that kind of cash with me. I asked him what is the problem in accepting
my credit card. I pointed out at the big
sign at the reception that says they will accept Visa and Mastercard.
He then threw me a curve
ball. He said his card swipe machine is
not working. I told him there is nothing
I can do about it. He than asked me if I
have any debit card. I asked him back: “will
that “swipe machine” work on a debit card and not on my visa credit card?” I also told him I don’t have any debit card
but I have a mastercard if he wants to use that. He never replied.
He picked up the phone, dialed
someone, and had a serious conversation with someone for 5 minutes in
Malayalam. I did not understand a thing
of what he was saying. One English word
I picked up was “commission”. He used
that word 3 times.
After hanging up the phone, he
swiped my Visa credit card in his machine.
It was accepted. He gave me the
small print out to sign. I did and he
gave me my credit card back.
Something bizarre happened
then. I asked for a copy of the detailed
statement of account for which I was charged.
Usually, in hotels, during check out time, you do not have to “ask” for
it. They themselves will give you. That
will show all charges – room charges, tax, bar charges, food charges, and
others in detail.
He said I have to get that from
Kerala.com Travel Division from whom I booked my reservation. Now I have no way to verify if those charges
are correct/legit or not. I have stayed
in hundreds of hotels in many countries including India
We had to catch the train. We did not have time. So we left.
During our car ride from
Guruvayoor to Thrissur, I was telling my wife I would like to call our Visa
card company in USA and make a stop payment on this until the hotel send us the
statement of account to our home. My
wife being a Goody Two-shoes convinced me not to do it.
